I foresee a lot of Tudor repertoire this year, with anniversaries both of Byrd and of Weelkes. I observed the latter by singing his ‘First Service’ canticles at Bath Abbey (doing a number of the first treble verse parts) with the Abbey Chamber Choir. I don’t think I’d sung these before, so the familiarity I felt must probably have come from listening to them. There are plenty more Weelkes canticle settings for me to learn this anniversary year; I believe he wrote nine settings in all and the only others I’ve done are his Short Service, the Service ‘for trebles’ and the Magnificat from the 5-voice setting, so that’s five and a half to go.<\/p>\n
The rest of the service included music by Bairstow and Parry with the Ayleward Responses. Byrd’s turn will come early in Lent.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I foresee a lot of Tudor repertoire this year, with anniversaries both of Byrd and of Weelkes. I observed the latter by singing his ‘First Service’ canticles at Bath Abbey (doing a number of the first treble verse parts) with … Continue reading